Irvine, Calif.-based WaterHealth International [1] is planning to install water purification and disinfection systems for 600 communities across India, funded by a $15 million project finance round from International Finance Corp. [2] this week.

IFC, a division of the World Bank, has previously invested equity in WaterHealth International to grow the business. But this new cash infusion will allow WaterHealth to quadruple the number of decentralized units up and running in Indian communities, said Tralance Addy, CEO of WaterHealth International.

"India has 600,000 villages that would fall into this category where we would want to improve the water conditions," Addy told the Cleantech Group today. "So 600 is a drop in the bucket."

By Eric Bellman

In the village of Karanehalli, a cluster of simple homes around an intersection of two dirt roads about 40 miles from India's high-tech capital of Bangalore, Farmer K.T. Srinivasa doesn't have a toilet for his home or a tractor for his field. But when a red and white cellular tower sprouted in his village, he splurged on a cellphone.

While the way his family threshes rice -- crushing it with a massive stone roller -- hasn't changed for generations, his phone has changed the way he farms. He uses it to decide when to plant and harvest by calling other farmers, to get the best prices for his rice, coconuts and jasmine by calling wholesalers, and to save hours of time waiting on the road for deliveries and pickups that rarely come on time.

"Life is much better with the cellphone," he said from his rice paddy in the shadow of the new tower. "I bring it with me to the fields and anyone can reach me here."Even amid the global economic slowdown, one Indian industry continues to boom: selling cellphones to the rural poor.

On a visit to a poor neighborhood, or favela, in Rio de Janeiro several years ago, Melanie Edwards asked how many people lived there. She heard estimates from 5,000 to 60,000. No one really knew.

They were “invisible,” just a small part of the 1 billion people around the world who are off the grid, lacking birth certificates, driver’s licenses, or voter registration cards. “They have nothing to show that they exist in the world,” Ms. Edwards says.

That information gap poses threats to both these people and everyone else. Without accurate data, governments and aid groups lack the ability to reach them effectively. At the same time, problems that might spread from these areas, such as epidemics, are likely to go undetected longer. Even businesses that would like to reach these people with helpful products and services are hampered by a dearth of knowledge about their specific needs.

The project, backed by New Delhi, would considerably undercut the so-called "$100 laptop", otherwise known as the Children's Machine or XO, that was designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the US.

The Children's Machine, which received a cool reception in India, is the centrepiece of the One Laptop Per Child charity initiative launched by Nicholas Negroponte, the computer scientist and former director of MIT's Media Lab. Intel launched a similar product, called Classmate, in response.

India's $20 laptop would also undercut the EeePC, made by Taiwan's Asustek. The EeePC was the first ultra-cheap, scaled-down laptop (a new category known as a netbook) launched worldwide through commercial channels. It does not have a hard drive and sells for $200-$400.

Other new models of philanthropy are even more closely linked to the business world. Last year, the Soros Economic Development Fund, Google’s philanthropic arm, and the Omidyar Network unveiled a $17m fund to invest in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India.

SMEs are an important engine for economic growth and job creation but are sorely lacking in India due, in part, to a lack of the financing needed to scale up. Reuben Abraham, senior adviser to the fund based in Hyderabad, met with George Soros in 2006 and said the billionaire financier “was intrigued by SMEs”.

The fund looks beyond India’s traditional investment sectors of IT and telecoms to invest between $500,000 and $3.5m in a variety of neglected but essential sectors, such as urban waste disposal and worker training for emerging industries such as retail, hospitality and healthcare.

“Every inefficiency you see in the country is a potential way to make money,” said Mr Abraham.

By IQBAL Z. QUADIR

Barack Obama has talked a lot about changing the way America relates to the world, and few areas are as ripe for reform as our policies on foreign aid. They have contributed to economic stagnation in poor countries and deprived America of large export markets. Entrepreneurship, not aid, is essential to rejuvenate markets in the developing world and, in turn, help America prosper.

During the Cold War, the U.S. instituted a policy of sending money to governments in poor countries to buy their political loyalty. While studies show that sending aid to foreign governments creates allegiance, it does not lead to economic progress. Instead, it makes governments in poor countries dependent on the U.S. rather than their citizens' taxes.

Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 30 January 2009

Despite the economic downturn, companies can find growth opportunities among the 3.7 billion people at the "base of the pyramid" (BOP) by adopting innovative strategies that benefit local communities, according to two reports released today by the World Economic Forum. The companion reports, entitled The Next Billions, present examples of successful BOP business ventures based on a year-long survey - drawn from consultation with over 150 business leaders and stakeholders, and a review of over 200 case studies. The reports were developed by the Forum in partnership with The Boston Consulting Group and with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

One report, entitled The Next Billions: Unleashing Business Potential in Untapped Markets, outlines business strategies for effectively engaging the BOP across all industry sectors, noting the potential of a market that has seen 8% growth rates in recent years. The other, entitled The Next Billions: Business Strategies to Enhance Food Value Chains and Empower the Poor, focuses on business models along the food value chain - from agricultural production through food processing, retailing and consumption. Food value chains provide the main source of economic activity for 70% of the BOP, and capture the majority of spending (over US$ 1.3 trillion per year on food).

Capital flows to emerging markets are in danger of collapsing this year as the financial crisis in advanced economies risks choking off the supply of credit to the developing world, an association of large banks warned on Tuesday.

The Institute for International Finance forecasts net private sector capital flows to emerging markets will be no more than $165bn (€125bn, £116bn) this year, less than half the $466bn inflow in 2008 and only one fifth of the amount sent in the peak year of 2007.

IF USER demand were the sole driver of innovation, the biomass cooking stove would be one of the most sophisticated devices in the world. Depending on which development agency you ask, between two-and-a-half and three billion people—nearly half the world’s population—use a stove every day, in conjunction with solid fuel such as wood, dung or coal. Yet in many parts of the world the stove has barely progressed beyond the Stone Age.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that toxic emissions from cooking stoves are responsible for causing 1.6m premature deaths a year, half of them among children under five years old. In China 83m people will die from lung cancer and respiratory disease over the next 25 years, according to a recent report from Harvard University. Research from the University of California, Berkeley, on stoves in India, Guatemala and Mexico has found links between indoor air-pollution from stoves and increased incidence of pneumonia, cataracts and tuberculosis.